PABI Plan - The Sarah Jane Brain Project

methods developed by the SJBP to share knowledge gained with the entire brain injury
community. The specific principles underlying these goals are outlined below.
Principle 1: Prevention is the best possible treatment for any brain injury and includes
preventing the initial insult as well as preventing secondary medical, social, and
behavioral consequences, including preventing a second injury.
Principle 2: The developmental stage of the child/young adult at the time of injury and
recovery across the lifespan must always be considered, and all treatments and
interventions should be implemented by individuals with pediatric training and special
expertise in PA/TBI.
Principle 3: Providers and all professionals should adhere to the principles of family-
and person-centered care, engaging the family and child/young adult themselves in a
collaborative process for setting and achieving treatment goals.
Principle 4: Early identification of PA/TBI is critical to improving long-term outcomes.
Principle 5: Best clinical practices need to be determined based upon evidence from
research and then standardized to be effective and efficient.
Principle 6: Children’s recoveries are strongly influenced by their environmental
contexts (home, school, community). Beyond early hospitalization, interventions to
improve outcomes for children and young adults with PA/TBI must occur in the settings
in which children and young adults with PA/TBI live and function (school, home, and
community), and must involve the “everyday people” in these settings such as
parents/caregivers, teachers, and peers.
Principle 7: Interventions for children and young adults with PA/TBI must acknowledge
the overlap among different disability populations in terms of treatment needs and useful
interventions.
Principle 8: Research should use a variety of methodologies to examine hypotheses
regarding recovery and intervention (prospective, naturalistic follow-up studies,
randomized controlled trials, single subject experiments, qualitative studies, and animal
models).
Principle 9: Interventions for children with PA/TBI occur at multiple levels (e.g.,
physical, medical, psychological, family, school, community) and across a continuum of
care (e.g., acute care, rehabilitation, re-entry, and ongoing educational, social, and
vocational life). Research on the effectiveness and efficacy of intervention should link
both vertically (i.e., across levels) and horizontally (i.e., across the continuum of care),
must follow children and families long-term, recognize that needs are likely to change
over time, use functional outcome measures, and measure generalization to a variety of
functional contexts of application.
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